Inventory management involves portable scanners for reading barcodes carried by inventory items. A conventional inventory scanning method includes scanning goods available in stocks, and storing scanning results in scanners. After the scanning is completed, the scanner is connected to a terminal, such as a personal computer (PC), to transmit accumulated data in batch to an inventory management system.
However, there is a need for an enhanced inventory scanning mechanism that would enable operators to transfer scanned inventory data from scanners to the inventory management system in real time while inventory items are being scanned.
Also, to increase efficiency of the inventory scanning process, it would be desirable to provide management of scanners so as to enable operators to use them not simply for scanning but for performing more complex inventory operations.